Gary Vaynerchuk rocks Portland’s new media scene

Yesterday afternoon, I caught wind of a talk going on at Weiden + Kennedy by Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of tv.winelibrary.com and new media guru. He was in town to promote his new book, andLegion of Talk persuaded him to give this free talk as well. About 150 technorati and entrepreneurials turned out to hear him in the 90-minute session, co-sponsored by Weiden + Kennedy and Strands. Legion of Tech’s goal is to bring the speakers of the TED conference to the masses whenever and wherever possible. Portland’s a great place to do it.

If you are not 100% fulfilled and energized at work, you are making a huge mistake in where you spend your time. This is the age to do what you love.

If you really, really, really do what you love, you will have the energy to put in the 18-20 hours a day that success requires.

Email is over. No one under 25 uses email anymore. Messaging has fractalized to Twitter, Facebook, texting, IM, Pownce, LinkedIn.

Social media is brand new to the masses. Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn are just getting going. When Oprah gets on Twitter, then you will know it’s hit bigtime. Until then, it’s in growth stage and we are early adopters.

Want advertisers for your podcast or other content? Google a search on your topic’s keywords, look in the right sidebar, and those are the advertisers you can approach for sponsorship. They’re already buying ads for your audience. It’s an easy sell.

Word of mouth is out of control in today’s market. It used to be that a well-connected professional could perhaps tell 50 qualified people about your product or service. The Web, Twitter, etc can multiply and target word-of-mouth referrals by 100.

Be Authentic. If you come out in the biggest, most authentic, way you possibly can, you can’t lose. Always be honest about who you are and what you do.

Don’t chase the business models or money trail when finding your space. Chase yourself. Find what you really love. Only then will you have the passion to put in the 18 hours a day it will take to own your space. (Basecamp was built after hours on raw energy and passion).

Be the Media. Stop consuming content. Start producing it. If you’re sitting home watching “Lost” on DVR, you need to shut it off and figure out your game plan, or you are wasting your time. (Don’t read. Write.)

Be a RAT — Real. Authentic. Transparent.

The Secret Sauce: Caring about people. The most important question in business is “how can I help?” Focus on providing a truly valuable service to your customer and you will win. Period.

GaryVee’s 80/20 blend: Inject 80% of the energy into every relationship you have. The 20% you get in return will be sweeter than wine. Why is Zappos beating the rest of the market right now? Because they actually give a shit, and it shows.

Today’s Gold Rush is about the personal brand. You need to own your area of expertise and make sure everyone knows about it. No longer are the brands the companies. Now the corporate brands exist by following the personal brands around. Scoble. Oprah. Kobe. Godin. Calacanis. Kawasaki. Vaynerchuk.